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Meet the New Owners: Jupitermedia Corp.

A few days ago, JP completed the sale of Antionline.com to Jupitermedia Corp. Most members probably know our company from using some of the sites we run on various high-tech topics. We currently serve more than 20 million monthly visitors at our sites, best known under the names of our two networks, internet.com and Earthweb. Among the sites we run are CodeGuru.com, Developer.com, ServerWatch.com, ScriptSearch.com and eSecurityPlanet.com. The list goes on and on.

First, to answer a question many have raised, the site will continue as a public message board. That's the reason we acquired it.

The transition of a site like this is a major undertaking, so you are likely to see minor changes happening gradually. Right now, our priority is to move it to a new, faster network provider and prepare a more powerful server to host it once it moves.

There will be minor changes but we bought the site from JP because there is a community of professionals who come here for security information. We recognize the value of that community and we are going to be making sure the community has a good place to meet. Our primary business is selling advertising and running conferences, so you will soon start to see ads again. But no pop-ups or pop-unders (except at some point we may run a survey to ask you about your interests; that is so we can run the site better).

You can expect to see ads from the major security firms. And we will work hard to make sure the ads aren't obtrusive. Our goal is to significantly improve the performance of the site. The ads will not slow it down.

We also hope to run a security seminar at some point in coming months where Antionline members will get a chance to meet in person and share expertise.

Right now, we're still trying to figure out how to improve the back-end. We are quite familiar with the mechanics and moderation issues that surround communities like this. But JP created a highly customized platform and he's told us that some of the performance issues you now experience are tied to that points system. So we are going to have to de-construct some of the code before we can optimize it. We may have to make changes to the features available to users, but it's too early to say.

One thing some users may not be happy about: we don't think the Chat server is the best use of the bandwidth. We will keep the Chat service running for a few more weeks, but our priority is to make the message board run more smoothly. When that is done, the Private Messages will be more useful because it should become relatively quick to log in and out of here. In consultation with JP and some other members, I think we will try to come up with some suggestions for an IRC host where members who agree to meet.

One thing that will be added is server logs. I know that a long time ago, some members were concerned about them and so JP turned logging off. But we will be following the same privacy policy we have been using for years. We track server traffic solely for statistical reasons (to count traffic). If you're concerned about what that means, here is the privacy policy we have followed at our other sites and which we will use as we host the site...http://www.internet.com/corporate/pr...acypolicy.html

We have much to do on our own end so we can get those performance upgrades online. But I wanted everyone to know who was taking over and what they had planned.

Finally, I'm not the only person involved. Now that the site is going to be supported by a company with a 24x7 IT department, we will also have other people involved in running the site. We're going to try and expand the roles that many volunteers have made, so that the site can be an even better resource for security professionals.

I'm sure you'll have other questions. We'll do our best to answer them.

i may be showing my age here but who the **** is Pete Townshend.
mmm the usual welcome to ao blah blah blah
if the antipoints system takes up so much bandwidth remove it im sure you will make alot of people happy and then you can leave up the irc server

Well the AP system is a neat feature and one that works relatively well. So i think if this were to be removed then AO would slowly but surely turn into a forum where the useful, informative posts would be buried amongst the not so useful posts, making it alot harder to actually find what you're looking for. Not to mention the annoyance of seeing s'kiddies get their own way on a forum that has for so long kept these people at arms length!

The IRC part of this i cant really comment on as i dont use it, but i can totally appreciate that are regular IRC members may be a bit apprehensive about this!

Anyways, i hope you and your colleagues do this place the justice it deserves and welcome!

i'm going to agree with reboot, although AP's can be annoying at times. i think it is vital to the whole community. like he said- useful/informative posts would be lost in a sea of scriptkiddie exploits/hotmail questions (lol, the how to..hotmail thing still makes me laugh)- it'd be nice not to need them, but in order to keep this forum clean, i believe necessary (that & it elevieates some work for the admins, they don't have to delete stupid peoples accounts- they AO community will do it for them!) anyway- that's what i think!

well hello jupman, welcome to your new online family. Can we be the red headed step child ? If you are the person I spoke to on the phone, then I just wanted to say Hello, good luck, and please keep us informed about the coming changes.

To the rest of the IRC people I see all the time ( every day haha ) we knew this change was coming, no one hid the fact. I don't agree with it but we all knew. I have no idea where the people here could go for a permanent alternative, perhaps that should be something for us to decide and rather quickly. There are options but I am not sure if those people want to be subjected to running it. anyways, just wanted to say hi to the new masa.

**edit**
one more thing, ditch the AP system, they don't do any good for anyone, just cause competition. A rating system would be useful, but not in its current manifestation. Giving me negative antipoints for saying this, just proves my point, as this post is non-technical and has no bearing on my knowledge.

Antionline in a nutshell
\"You\'re putting the fate of the world in the hands of a bunch of idiots I wouldn\'t trust with a potato gun\"

I am quite certain there is going to be an alternative to irc.antionline offered. If you'd like to find out more about it, there are people on the IRC channel who can tell you about it, JP being one of them. I wouldn't worry too much about not having a place to go

Deb

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.